Theme Song: Who You Are - Jessie J

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The next few days seem to pass by in a blur and I had trouble keeping track. It was an endless cycle of eat, sleep, eat and more sleep. I hated the bed rest, but I knew it was crucial to getting better.

On the fourth day I woke up in the early evening to Calvin gently shaking me awake on my left side, closest to the windows. I cracked open my right eye and groaned while sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"I figured I'd bring you something to eat while I check your arm." Calvin gave me a sheepish grin as he handed me a canned preservative with a plastic spoon.

"Where you get the spoon from?" I mumbled sleepily, willing my eyes to open fully. It was the one of the few times a feeling of fatigue had taken over me, but I knew it was just from sleeping so much.

At some point I was going to need to get up. 

"Oh, the man had a lot of stuff in a room down near the kitchen. Guess you could call it something like a basement, or shelter area. He's got quite the collection, but a lot of the stuff has gone bad already."

I nodded as he spoke and my stomach growled as if on cue, but I cast a glance down to my arm that was bare due to sleeping in the camisole the past few days.

My green eyes widened with a start and a feeling of panic started to settle into my belly, "What's wrong with it?"

Calvin realized I thought something was wrong. He shook his head, "Oh, no, uh-nothing's wrong. Sorry, I didn't mean to spook you. I just meant I need to check it."

I felt my muscles relax and I leaned back against the pillow. Calvin worked to peel the bandage he had placed on it off. His fingers were delicately working, inspecting all the elements of the slash in my arm that wound no doubt scar upon healing.

"I'll have a scar, won't I?" I asked curiously, placing the can of beans in my lap and using my right hand to spoon them out. I devoured them in seconds and Calvin stifled a laugh.

I was glad the scar was on the left arm seeing as I was right handed. "It's better than losing an arm, huh?" 

I met his eyes and I laughed lightly, nodding in agreement. The kid was a wise crack and I found I enjoyed his company. When I watched him work I thought of Henry.

Henry had been nimble with his hands too..stitching up my wounds from aerial class.

I swallowed down the memories of the past and looked to Calvin again with a smirk, "You remind me of my brother. He was good with his hands."

Calvin hesitated while wiping down my wound and met my gaze hesitantly, "The doctor?" 

I nodded and Calvin smiled, "My sister would be proud." I smiled tightly, "I think both our siblings would be proud of us."

There was a bittersweet notion to my tone and Calvin caught it. He swallowed past the lump in his own throat and continued to clean and dress my wound.

"Where's Daryl?" I asked hesitantly, not meeting Calvin's eyes as he started to grab at the old bandages and cleaning supplies once he was done.

Calvin furrowed his brows, "He's been asleep for a bit. He's stubborn as damn mule." I snorted, "Yeah, tell me about it." Calvin hesitated by my bed before sitting down on it.

He looked like he was about to say something, but then thought better of it. "What is it?" I asked, furrowing my own brows and pushing myself up farther on the bed. 

I was about to get up, that was for sure.

I felt well enough to do so and the antibiotics had been working so far. I knew I needed to start walking around again; otherwise my muscles would get all gummed up.

"I just-where do we go from here? Like, once your better?" Calvin looked a little hesitant as he spoke. Not fearful, but just cautious.

"I don't want to run into those people again." He stated earnestly while shivering at the thought of what those men could have done to him had he not been able to break out of his bonds and run that day.

"There's a place we heard about..a safe place. It's where everyone was heading to that day..that day that everything went down." 

I stopped to reflect, the memory of Hershel and everything else flashed through my mind. Then, just as quick as it happened, it was gone.

"The train tracks..it's where we've been trying to get to since that day. I think we got turned around a time or two though." I let my words hang in the air before seeing Calvin's deflated look.

"Hey, look at me." I said insistently.

Calvin looked up after a moments hesitation, "We'll get there; no matter what. And we're not leaving you."

Calvin smiled sheepishly, his demeanor shifting from cautious to optimistic.

"You're one of us now, Calvin." I added and he let out a breathy laugh and nodded.

When he looked at me I could see he realized just what good company he was in. He was safe. And we'd do anything to keep it that way.

As he started to walk out I shifted and put my legs over the bed to get up. I ran my hands through my dirty hair and Calvin hesitated in the doorway.

"I still got your bag of stuff on the nightstand. If you're feeling up to you can rinse your hair out in the sink..he has quite the bottle water collection down in that bunker of his. I used it to wash my hair."

He ran his hands through his blonde locks that were more fluffy and radiant than they had been days ago. 

"Look at you!" I smirked while eying his hair.

He rolled his eyes at my words and I laughed lightly while getting up slowly. My legs were shaky and rightly so. Besides bathroom breaks, I never got up in the past four days. 

I stretched backwards and then sideways, both right and left, but my limbs were still a little wobbly. 

He still hesitated in the doorway, "You need any help?" He started to walk back towards me and I shook my head, "Nah, I got it."

When Calvin got closer I saw the circles under his eyes and I frowned, "Calvin, you need to sleep for a few hours. We'll take part of the night shift and then you take the rest."

Calvin looked like he was about to protest, but I eyed him with a stern no nonsense look. He folded under my gaze and nodded, "I could use like four hours of sleep. Then I'll be good again."

I looked relieved that he hadn't fought me and smirked, "At least you're not as stubborn as a mule."

He laughed before walking beside me, slowing his pace to my gait, "Yeah, well, you seem to have your hands full with him. Figure I won't add to it."

I rounded the bed to grab my bag of goodies, and set the empty can of food down in its place, "I'll get it later."

He nodded as we made our way down the stairs and to the guest bathroom in the hallway. I saw a few bottled waters sitting by the sink and looked back to Calvin, "Are those mine?"

Calvin nodded, "Wash away."

I smiled and Calvin wandered off to go wake up Daryl. I was glad for the solitude and silence for a moment. 

I kept the door open since the bathroom was a little smaller. Most guest bathrooms were.

I untangled the bag that had old travel size shampoo and flipped the tab, pouring it into my right hand. It smelled, very faintly, like lavender.

I wondered what it had smelled like fresh in the bottle. I knew I'd never find out.

I took the bottled water and unscrewed it half assed, since my hands were full of soap and leaned my head over the sink.

My eyes never dared to look in the mirror above me. I poured water on my head, coating it well and then started to slowly massage the shampoo in my hair.

My left arm ached slightly, but not nearly as bad as it had when the infection set in. I suppose the medicine had worked because I was fever free and actually up and walking around.

The water and shampoo were foreign to me these days....something I hadn't been used to since the prison.

A luxury we also took for granted before the world went to shit.

I suds my hair and doused it with water, using the last two bottles to rinse the shampoo out. No need to condition it since it would be all gummed in less than a day or two. 

I planned on hitting the road sooner than later and I didn't want to waste water when we could use it for drinking.

I opened the little Listerine bottle and gargled with it for a few moments, realizing how old these were, but continuing anyways.

They tasted faintly of mint, but I could tell it was super old. Still, once I spit it out my mouth tingled and burned. And when I blew out a breath it was cool and I could smell the traces of mint.

I grabbed the towel that Calvin had laid out on the ground, drying my hair while shaking my long auburn locks out. It wasn't until I flipped my head up and down in the towel that my eyes caught sight of my reflection.

The mirror showed me a different girl than I used to be. My face was slightly different, but not too much. 

My eyes hardened, the lines around my eyes no longer from straight laughter and constant joy like before the walkers showed up.

They were now from sadness, death, hardship and survival.

I stared at the girl in the mirror as the towel slipped from my hands and fell into the sink.

My strands of hair were dripping wet onto my camisole and soaking the back part, but I paid no mind to it. The water felt nice upon my skin. 

I stared at myself in the mirror intently until a voice caused me to jump

"Ya' alright?" 

My heart hammered in my chest at the rough twang and I whirled on Daryl.

"Don't sneak up on my like that!"

He shrugged lightly in an effort of a silent apology. My heart was still beating frantically when I looked up to him hesitantly and answered honestly.

"Yeah, I just..I don't know."

He crinkled his eyes, looking to me as if he was concerned. Then he looked at the mirror behind me, realizing I had been staring at myself.

"Ya' look fine. If that's what yer' doin.." He mumbled nonchalantly and I quirked a half smile at the Daryl-like compliment.

I quickly changed the subject, "You taking watch tonight too?" He nodded, a quick jerk of his head and I smiled, "Yeah, me too."

He furrowed his brows, "Ain't feelin' bad are ya'?" 

I shook my head earnestly, "No, no. I feel fine. I'm tired, but that's just from lying in bed for a few days. I'm ready to be up on watch. I need to."

He nodded wearily, his strands of hair damn near covering his eyes and he nodded towards the front room, "Let's get to it."

I followed him out of the bathroom and my eyes widened as I realized in the dim light that his locks were glistening! They were wet and they looked..holy shit they looked clean!

He turned to grab his bow and he handed me off the pair of sickles that meant the world to me. 

I took them, sheathing them in their spots in my blue jeans shorts and smelling a whiff of fresh lavender that came from Daryl's person.  

"You washed your hair."

Daryl looked up to me and quickly away as if embarrassed, "Ya'? So?"

His tone sounded defensive and I snickered, "Nothing, I just..it looks good. You don't look like Pig Pen anymore."

He blew out a puff of air and rolled his eyes, "Not like we got the luxuries we used to, Red." I smirked, "I know. Just giving you a hard time."

I saw the corners of his mouth twitch in a smile, despite him acting all defensive about washing it.

I watched a few damp strands of his hair drip water onto the floor and I eyed him appreciatively before he could catch me doing so.

"Where's Calvin?" I asked looking around in the living room and not seeing him.

Daryl nodded upstairs, "There's another small bedroom up there. He's been usin' that one."

I frowned, "Then what have you been doing to sleep?"

Daryl eyed me before moving the small loveseat close to the window. The curtains were there, but any sign of light or movement, I would see it.

"Post up here." He pointed to the loveseat before continuing, "When I can jus' been sleepin' on this."

He motioned to the loveseat I posted up on. As he handed me a rifle he continued unannounced with a small shrug, "Or wherever I can."

I felt my heart wrench and I wondered briefly if Daryl had been having trouble sleeping since we weren't together..back to back like we did in the woods.

The comfort of each other had been a nice way to fall asleep; our body heat a security blanket, much like we were to each other.

I took my spot with the rifle next to the window and Daryl mentioned he would take a different window in the dining room.

Right before he left he muttered a low, "Holler if ya' need anythin'."

Well, he's in a mood tonight.

He was being stand offish and I realized we had never really spoken about the fight we had right before I fainted that day.

I bit my chapped lips and nodded, watching him walk away to the dining room as he took his spot in the large bay window.

This is going to be a long night.

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Author's Note: More chapters to come tomorrow!!!